Transporting an Entire T. Rex

The Wankel T. rex is one of the most complete dinosaurs in the world and will soon be viewed by millions visiting the Smithsonian's Natural History Museum starting in 2019. But how did they get it there?

The Wankel Tyrannosaurus Rex is a dinosaur with many names. The fossil's namesake is Montana rancher Kathy Wankel, who discovered the specimen on a national wildlife refuge in 1988. The dino's technical name, MOR 555, refers to the T. rex's home for more than two decades, the Museum of the Rockies in Bozeman, Mt. But now, the dinosaur is known by a different name: "the Nation's T. rex". The near 65-million-year-old specimen arrived this morning at its new home at the National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C., where he will be part of $35 million planned dinosaur hall and become the most viewed dinosaur fossil in the world.

Jack Horner, a paleontologist at Montana State University, led a team that uncovered the fossil in the late 1980s. The Wankel T. rex is the first known specimen to have one of its forelimbs intact and also was a one of several dinosaurs where Mary Schweitzer first discovered dinosaur soft tissue. Horner and his colleagues have even uncovered a few details about the dino's short life. "The Wankel T. rex was the first one we were able to cut into and look at growth rates and things like that," Horner tells PopMech. "We know that it died at the age of 18, and that it grew very fast every from the time it hatched until it died. We know that it probably died violently. We don't know what caused its death but it has all the indications of having gone through death throes, and we know that it died along the river bank 65 million years ago."

The skeleton is about 85 percent complete. Despite missing the end of its tail, part of a foot, and a few ribs, it's one of the most complete specimens in existence, stretching to about 38 feet long and weighing a little more than 5 tons. The Wankel T. rex is not quite as complete as other specimens, especially the Sue skeleton currently on display at the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago. However, where a fossil is found helps dictate its future. Sue was found on private property where it became a high-priced collectors piece, but Wankel was found on federal land and is technically owned by the Army Corps of Engineers. "The Sue skeleton is more complete but they haven't done nearly as much science to it," Horner says.

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Horner's staff helped prep Wankel for its trip to the nation's capital. The bones were packed in boxes filled with foam while many pieces were preserved with plaster jackets. The packages were then inspected by the Army Corps of Engineers before it was loaded into an 18-wheeler. "They can definitely take a bumpy ride," Horner says.

After leaving the Museum of the Rockies, the dinosaur was handled by FedEx Custom Critical, a branch of FedEx designed to ship unconventional payloads. "This is a first for us so we're very excited," says Katie Wassmer, a spokesperson for FedEx. "We've shipped parts of fossils and even parts of the Titanic when it was going through a museum exposition, but never a full skeleton." It was a nice PR coup for FedEx, too: They branded the 18-wheeler with a huge T. rex and the slogan "Delivering History: The Nation's T. rex.

To prepare Wankel for its 2000-mile journey, the Custom Critical team outfitted the semi to protect the fossils against temperature and theft. On its entire trip, the interior of the trailer remained at room temperature, as requested by the Smithsonian. So the 18-wheeler is climate controlled, and if the temperature would have gone outside the acceptable zone, the sensors would have alerted the driver to readjust the temperature. In addition, the truck is able to adjust barometric pressure and humidity as well.

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The second part of moving fragile dinosaur bones is not so different from moving into your new apartment—if you don't want things to break, pack carefully. "Everything is packaged and handled into 16 crates, and none of them are stacked on top of each other," Wassmer says. A security device about the size of two iPhones, known as SenseAware, is then attached to each crate to monitor interior temperature and also detect light, meaning would-be thieves would be caught as soon as they pried open a crate. SenseAware also creates a geo fence that keeps track of each package, especially if it leaves its preset location. The two-person team driving the truck is also tailed by a two-person security team all the way from Montana to D.C.

Once it is unloaded, the T. rex will be on display at the Smithsonian until October. Then, it braves another trip to Canada to visit a company that creates custom support structures for fossils. The Smithsonian's new dinosaur hall will open in fall 2019 with the Wankel as its crown jewel.

Horner was there when Wankel was unearthed and studied. Its home has been in Montana for 25 years (other than the other 65 million spent underground.) But, when asked if he or any of his team was sad to see the dinosaur go, he was just the opposite. "It's a specimen that was collected on federal land and therefore it belongs to the people of the United States of America…it's the Nation's T. rex and it will go to the Smithsonian and be viewed by more people than any dinosaur in history," Horner says. "[And] we've collected nearly a dozen T. rexes, so we do have other ones."

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